Militants fighting to overthrow Somalia's U.N.-backed government havecondemned talks at the African Union summit in Libya, where Africanleaders are considering giving the African Union peacekeeping missionin Somalia a stronger mandate to pursue and fight the insurgents.
A spokesman for Somalia's al-Qaida-linked al-Shababmilitant group, Ali Mohamed Rage warned Friday that any attempts toexpand the current mandate of the African Union peacekeeping mission,known as AMISOM, would be met with violent resistance.
Ragesays the summit in Libya is being held to change the mandate of AMISOMtroops, so that they can destroy more Somali homes and kill morecivilians.
The al-Shabab spokesman was alluding to chargesmade by Somalis and international human rights groups, accusing AMISOMof sometimes firing their weapons indiscriminately in response toinsurgent attacks and killing civilians. AMISOM has denied anywrongdoing.
Since Ethiopia ended its occupation of Somalia inJanuary, al-Shabab has focused its guerrilla war on AMISOM and theSomali government under moderate Islamist leader Sharif Sheik Ahmed. Al-Shabab and another militant group called Hisbul Islam have rejectedPresident Sharif's call for reconciliation and have vowed to overthrowthe government.
Since early May, near-daily fighting betweengovernment forces and rebels in Mogadishu has killed more than 300people and has uprooted more than 170,000. Last month, the governmenturged neighboring countries to send troops to Somalia to defend againstSomali extremists and foreign allies pouring into the country.
Somalia'sdeteriorating security situation topped the agenda during a three-dayAfrican Union summit in Libya that began on Wednesday.
On thesidelines of the summit on Thursday, Somali Foreign Minister MohamedAbdullahi Omar told the Reuters news agency that several morebattalions of AMISOM troops are likely to be deployed in Mogadishu andthat AMISOM's rules of engagement may be changed to allow the troops todo more than defend against insurgent attacks.
AMISOM wascreated to help Somalia's secular transitional government stabilize thecountry after Ethiopia ousted the country's ruling Islamic Courts Unionin December, 2006. The mission's mandate was limited to guarding keysites in the capital and providing local humanitarian aid and support.
The African Union planned to have a force about 8,000 troops. But a prolonged Islamist-led insurgency in Mogadishu and a chronic lackof funding have kept several African countries from fulfilling theirpledge to contribute troops.
The mission currently has about4,300 troops from Uganda and Burundi, who are largely confined to theirbases near the airport, seaport, and the presidential palace.